madonna is considered an idling argentina after helping this country when it's 2nd world cup in 1986. he struggled with alcohol and drug abuse all his life. but his family and friends, i convinced he was a victim of his caretakers who failed to provide the treatment he needed to survive . that is i will, as i said, i'm going to fight it. ah, hello again. i'm fully back with the headlines on al jazeera, the number of corona virus cases reported in india. since it's not of the panoramic has exceeded 20000000. it came as a health ministry announce more than 300000 infections for the 13 straight day. the overall number of deaths has tops 220000 lives at random has moved from new delhi, the health minister on monday, the health ministry rather. and they were talking about how cases and some of the

worst effect places, mot, austria, has been the worst effected throughout this pandemic over the past year. but also in delhi and chucked us go that they are beginning to see that cases are starting to plateaued. there, but the problem is that india is still not conducting enough tests to know the real number of infections that's being the story in india. again, throughout the pandemic. but even just more recently, testing has dropped and so we can't take the numbers to be exactly as they are. a train has fallen on to cars in mexico's capital after the bridge. it was traveling on collapse. at least 15 people have been killed according to the city's mer. another 70 have been injured in the accident. medical crews are still searching the wreckage, looking for survivors. us present, joe biden has raised the cap on refugees entering the country to find an earlier decision to keep the limit imposed by the trump administration. more than $62000.00

people can now be admitted this year, out from $15000.00 in colombia to finance minister has resigned after days of protest against proposed tax increases left at least 17 people dead. have been home for more mass demonstration and this week despite the president, yvonne duca withdrawing the plan, the u. k. is hosting the 1st meeting of g 7 foreign ministers in 2 years. your secretary of state antony blank and held sideline talks with his british count upon they singled russia and china for breaking international norms. and 2 of the worlds talked philanthropist splitting up bill and melinda gates say they've decided to end their marriage after 27 years. in that time they've given billions of dollars to charity, including committing $1750000000.00 towards fighting covered 19. those are the headlines analysis era coming up next year is counting the cost, say with the small boy and his brother,

rescued from war in garza by the red cross my health and we were 1st placed on a red cross truck now with world leader in crisis. management and hines, becoming a doctor in chicago, who still misses her homeland one day cost me thinking of returning jordan, i'll just meet 2 successful arab doctors in north america around the world. the humanitarian and the healer on al jazeera. ah, hello and welcome. i and peter w, this is counting the cost on al jazeera, your look at people's business and economics this week, china's navy and its maritime militia, harrassing fishermen and antagonizing its neighbors, or just defending their ancestral fees as beijing claims. as the one's dominant, u. s. navy lost control of the south china sea. also this week,

henry ford may be best known for his car company, but he's also the man gave the world the to day. we 10. but could the pandemic be showing in before day and working week and environmental racism opposition grows to a pipeline the could put at risk the drinking water of black low income resident use in march more than 200 chinese fishing vessels, occupied a reef in the philippines exclusive economic zone only the fishing vessels went manned by fishermen. but by paging maritime militia, which have been deployed in the south china sea to protect its quotes and festival sees china claims the whitson reef as its own to the north in the sprightly islands paging has built military installations and artificial islands of china, contest islands from japan to malaysia, the united states is deploying war war ships to the region right now in just the

size of fleets. washington has fallen behind. so this is what the picture looks like. china has 360 naval vessels compared to 298 for the united states. beijing's maritime militia is estimated at $3000.00 ships. these are not benign, but some are carried out with lethal weapons and manned by ex naval officers. but the united states has also the support of australian, japanese and indian war ships in this region. even france and the u. k. a sending vessels to the region as well. that's one simple measure. so how much does china spend on its military? well, the official number in 2019 was $183.00 and a half by dollars, but it also funds the militia and various other security services, taking its total spending to an estimated $240000000000.00. misses still short of the $705000000000.00 that washington spends on its defense budget. and the total

number comes to $934000000000.00 when you take into account the budget for homeland security, the cia and other american agencies. so with a more assertive china, the united states in the philippines of restarted joints, military exercises after last year's cancellation due to the pandemic. but the 50 plus he had defense packed hangs in the balance because of the philippines president rodrigo de thirty's, initial decision to walk away from it. for counting. the cost to 0 is jamilla adding no gun has more. now from manila the us, theodore roosevelt. the strike group returns to the south china sea for a 2nd time this year. the us 7th fleet says the visit is part of its routine operations. but regional tensions are flaring because of china's reclamation of many areas, and it's use of maritime militia to enforce its illegal claims. in the south china,

the u. s. considers the philippines, one of its strongest allies in the region, and these, so called by liquor and exercises, allow both countries to conduct, joint military and humanitarian exercises designation. their resume this week after being canceled last year because of the pandemic. but they've been tone down. that's because philippine president would be good at to cancel the visiting force agreement between the 2 countries. early last year, after a political ally was denied a u. s. visa, but faced with widespread criticism and mounting public pressure, 230 announced in november, he was spending that position for 6 months. the church has declared since he took office nearly 5 years ago, that he wants an independence foreign policy that is free from america's influence . any so called the pivot towards china policy is seen by many here as an attempt

to appease the country, but had come under attack by letting beijing the mean and abuse our country. the president is only signaling that we are weak, that we will not stand up for ourselves and our interests, despite weeks of public outreach to tear, to has remained silent over the occupation of the woodson reef in the south china sea by hundreds of chinese military vessels. the arrival of china's maritime militia and fishing, pleaded woodson reef, in my opinion, is designed to put pressure on the chart a who we quiver case on whether or not he's going to terminate the visiting forces agreement. last week or us defense secretary lloyd austin, spoke with his counterparts in the philippines, secretary dill, fiddler and zanna to discuss the situation. often proposed measures to deepen defense cooperation. but many here believe this will prove difficult unless the

visiting force. this agreement is fully restored. jamaila in dog. 8 in our 0 manila . right, let's get some analysis from dr. graham own web. he's the adjunct fellow at the right direction. i'm school of international studies. he joins us from singapore, graham, great to see you there. again in singapore. give me your thoughts on the top line on the story. the united states says this 3000 ships in this region. what you're reading of that, my reading is that this assessment by the united states trans, centrally, is not true at one that has been a quiet expansion of china's maritime militia over the last decade alone. this is not a new concept fall. the chinese military in particular, the people's liberation army, navy rich field. this capability is a contract at a time by the chinese military to prior create a force multiply all sorts over the wide expanse of the salt trying to see graham

can you explain for me one particular aspect of this, which is kind of intriguing and compelling. i guess in equal measure officially, the militia isn't there to do what everyone else thinks the militia is there to do officially. at some level, the militia doesn't even exist. but on the other hand, president teaching ping has spoken about it in public. so there's an acceptance of the reality, but there is a denial at the same time. therein lies the problem. because yes, he has talked about the central military commission, the cmc, which overseas, china's military forces both nancy and has also referred to the idea of a michelle. it's a very established traditional concept for chinese strategy in fuel being gorilla pipe forces traditionally on land, but no se, so this little hiding about. but i think there's the still elements of, you know,

possible deniability because, you know, was come to shop specials, operating at c, to being operated by fishermen. i'll be happy to receive some amount of training, but what we know in being able to operate in sort of our a military style, if you like. but if you know this is element of possible deniability because they're also trained to, to get to some, whatever small munitions that you carry, the radio set which they use of how many kids with conventional chinese able offered to control that overboard as well. and so it said that this, this, this and the duty about it, which makes it a very good problem if it's a creative device, but it seems to me as if it could potentially be quite sinister. so, key question for the united states, if you're a naval slash military planner in the pentagon, how much of a real threats are you thinking this militia might be?

it's, it's a very difficult problem because you really can't exchange physical shots. even a shot across the bow can be very difficult because in terms of the, the rules of the, of the lord, your lord dealing with arm tressles, we're talking about mabel ships may come to this arrangement. also maritime militia are not quite common, not report the chinese of establish this and because of the efficacy of verifying the shows ability to disrupt me, will patrols. and in the way i hold the for if you like you for. busy the main, the conventional naval forces that brought to the musicals, but have also fall to copy cutting. you're going on where payments the get nom, i'm down the road. the philippines. i'm very sure we'll pick up a very similar approach. fighting fire with fire because of the advocacy of the

shot people to pick the whole these force of the constable because of that possible denies. does this mean the for the united states? if this copy, kathy going on on the part of yet nom, and potentially in the future on the part of the philippines. full that together with the militia, by definition being the kind of force perhaps that the united states didn't anticipate or didn't see coming. does that mean that china now, in effect only runs the south china sea in a way that the united states doesn't anymore and perhaps can never do in the future . i think we have ended up in that situation where the chinese essentially on that tough. by virtue of that, of that presence, not just the occupational, these islands or artificial are, you know, features that are grown into islands, but also by the fact that, you know,

3000 strong maritime militia is costing the net fund wide for the chinese navy. and put a chinese military in general, that is exactly the kind of anti excess and denial approach that the chinese by design wanted to for a long time. are you mind you are trying to sense budget is a 3rd of the american defense budget. so the chinese have to make the conscious call the are expanding the conventional need, a full search field, several carriers to operate in the sol, tennessee. but the maritime militia is a cheap, very effective instrument to sort of club the gap until the chinese navy, in particular maturity and becomes a force to be compared to the water by, you know, to be reckoned risk gram. thank you so much. we must leave it there. graham, on web, they're talking to us from singapore. thank you. the news

us politicians and activists, the rallying against the auction of an oil pipeline in the u. s. city of memphis, environmental activists say it puts at risk the drinking water of low income residents, a majority of whom, a black, the former vice president, al gore, has called it's a case of environmental racism. manuel, repulsive reports for months residence in south memphis had been fighting against the construction of an oil pipeline. elmer dorsey says she's worried over what it might mean if a proposed oil pipeline were to cut right through the neighborhood. she's lived in for most of her life. my thought, well, why would they bring it through my neighborhood? there is a growing movement among the local population against the plans for the energy project. the concern from activists like justin j pearson is over the route being proposed for the pipeline, which is expected to pass over the memphis aqua for so one of the most severe

negative consequences is to our environment. they're planning to build a 1500 p s. i crudo a pipeline, a top the met, the sand doc for which supplies drinking water to over a 1000000 people. in addition to this, they're building a top, an area that's the most seismically active in the south eastern part of the united states. the pipeline would also pass through box to a predominantly black neighborhood that could say is already exposed to pollution from several nearby industrial site. in recent weeks, a growing course voices have spoken out against the project, including at least $28.00 members of congress and former us vice president al gore . it is reckless, racist. it is a ripoff. we're trying to stop this pipeline. it's called the by l. your pipeline, the members may, are just came out against it 2 days ago, which gave us all some great encouragement. the 2 companies are trying to bully the city with grant the lawsuit. i do that everywhere,

even though their legal theories are often nonsense. but memphis is standing up because the black citizens up members and their white allies, are standing up to say no more of this environmental racism. a controversial aspect of this pipeline and others like it across the united states is the use of nationwide permit 12, which allow for fuel companies to fast track projects like the behavior connection pipeline. the parent company responsible for the project, valero energy corporation, did not respond to our request or a comment, but the company has defended the project. promising the pipeline will meet environmental standards almost a century ago. the 5 day working week was born after henry ford decided workers with more leisure time would buy more cars. he was right now with many people flipping open their laptops and working from home during the pandemic. there was a desire for some not to return to 5 days in the office. well,

they may be in luck. a number of companies that have switched to a 4 day working week, believe productivity and employee wellbeing has improved. and spain is preparing to pilot a 32 hour working week. sometime this coming awesome comes some 20 odd years since franz kept working week there at 35 hours. let's get more on this initiative with each on chung, a researcher on the labor market and director of the welfare state research cluster at the university of kent in the u. k. h. and welcome back to counting the cost. is this a fad, or is there a genuine momentum here that will introduce it and keep it, i guess, becoming part of the status quo of how we work. i don't think this is a fad. i think, after, especially the pandemic. a lot of countries as well as companies are seeing the benefits of having shorter hours. not only because of the productivity issues that you've mentioned, but about work or retention worker recruitment, as well as kind of addressing some of the suffice the costs of long hours work,

such as mental health issues broke out, etc. and increasingly, we are seeing movements from across the world to really get this movement at our national level even. but capping the working week at 35 hours, as the legislation stands in france is different to working from home. you know, so this is being spun. i guess by employers or by big companies saying this is actually a good thing for employees mental health, but sometimes a lot of people don't actually like working from home because it increases that feeling of isolation. it increases not having those water cooler moments, not interacting with people in the workplace and getting the, the dynamism and the, the synergy from actually having a face to face conversation. absolutely love the things i do want to point out though the 40 week i'm working from home are 2 very different policies. having said that, i think another reason why the 4 day week has become more popular is because as

people are from home, the idea of working 40 hours in the office becomes obsolete. so it is more in the way easier to kind of get rid of the ideas about working hours, necessarily lead to productivity or commitment of workers and introduce working from home and 40 week at the same time about the violation issues. and having that collaborations with colleagues, etc. i definitely see the point in that the physical content being able to see each other also kind of at a when maybe at hawksley does have an influence on maybe collaboration or kind of these moments where you find ideas. but this doesn't necessarily mean the working from home should not be introduced. it's more about how do we then make less a virtual water cooler spaces. are virtual collaboration areas where people could actually really have time and kind of space to think about these issues as well. so, you know, there are issues, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't introduce these policies. certain regions

in spain are going to be experimenting with this towards the end of this year, autumn time in northern europe. how do you judge, and how long does it take to judge whether this has been a success or not? because if the company isn't making more money, they would say yes, it's a success. if we're spending less money on no money moving our staff around spain, that's a win win, but it might not be a win win for the employees. well, i think it takes a while. it's not something that you could just kind of gather evidence and then make a decision in a couple of weeks time. i think the specially given the going for a 4th a week is really entailing a huge disrupt, disrupting the way we think about productivity. our work processes and the way we work. now that doesn't come just, you know, in a day or 2 that takes a long process. there has to be a lot of discussions between employers and employees. and that i would say, i can't give you the exact date, but i would take months if not a year for those processes to really take place and be efficient enough for us to

say actually this is the benefits. the other thing is that a lot of the benefits actually don't only come in through the productivity per hour, but actually in terms of reduction of sickness, you know, retention, recruitment issues where we are getting rid of eliminating some of the costs of the existing work cultures. that we live in, so those things take some time. and again, you know, there might be some hesitations by even workers in introducing these 40 weeks. although in general we do see that there is more of an excitement and hesitation. it will take a while for people to get used to it as well. and as people spend less time at work, they will start enjoying things outside of work in terms of spending time with family spending time doing more proper leisure, other than tv watching, which really will reap so much more benefits in terms of societal costs as well. agent, do you think this will catch on around the world?

you know, we were well used to people at jack moore, the billionaire co founder of that big e commerce firm in china. he's. he's a firm believer in the so called 996 rule. listen to you went from 9 am to 9 pm, 6 days a week. you rest on the 7th day. that's how he thinks you should make big money. i think that approach is roman. we have, you know, as a part of this very large kind of academic community that looks at working hours and it's impact not just some productivity on, but also on the social cost. there's so many social costs that come with it. well, to begin with. it's not very productive, those very long hours, end of resulting in lower productivity and you even actually end up making mistakes to the point where it becomes negative productivity. for most workers, i'm not saying all but for most workers, also the long term costs of that. so workers tend to burn out easily. they go into sickness and absenteeism, which is not disruptive only for the workers,

but the whole work group or the company as a whole. there's a huge implications in terms of the, you know, the impact that has even on the partners in children's children's cell for emotional li cycle, logically, even their cognitive development may be hindered if parents do not spend time with them. so i don't think that's necessarily a wait of productivity and again we see so many evidence pointing to that direction . in fact, working shorter hours can be beneficial again for the individual for the company, but us as a society, as a whole, especially when we think about the social cost of very long working hours. again, it might be that in the very, you know, introduction for a week may be a bit costly for a certain companies where you do need to introduce more workforce to the company. but having said that on the longer run in terms of retention, recruitment, i really productivity, but also ensuring that workers are not runtime. workers are productive,

not just for that day or that week, but for a long period of time data not moved to other companies or leave the labor market altogether. these are the kind of the benefits we can see and the benefits that impacts society in terms of societal wellbeing and welfare in terms of reduction of health costs can be really immense agent. and we'll have to great talk to you here this week on counting the company for inviting me now the crew of the cargo ship abandoned in the canyon port mombasa have not been trapped on board for more than 18 months. they've not been paid for even longer, and they rely on handouts for food, clothing, and medicine. out to 0, malcolm webb has been to visit them. its moses moonlight job to look after the crews of abandoned ships. he took us to one, the m. v to non his mod, off kenya's coast one and a half years ago. it unloaded a cargo of construction materials. here at the port of mombasa that has been in

this channel ever since waiting for instructions from its liberties owners that the syrian crew says never came. the only way to meet them is by climbing on board. since they can't leave the ship, the situation that mission moment and any tuition like that the ship's crew haven't been paid since months before it was abandoned. the poor city of mombasa is just there is only about a kilometer away so close. but yet, so far for the sailors stuck on board cobra restrictions and immigration rules mean they can't go on the land. plus if they abandon the ship, they risk losing the wages road in some cases, up to 3. and so they can find within the decks of the ship, which they say have come to feel like a prism, ferris or honey, the ships cook,

sailed with it to turkey, romania and russia. before getting stranded here, as a young child back home in syria. so it doesn't matter because nobody feels what i feel i'm stuck here and i wish the owner could feel what we feel. if you children were here, you would know what we feel. i have been away from my family for 3 years. had it been confined in these cabins as a wait for a resolution, they're not alone. around 6000 seafarers face the same problem on hundreds of ships, abandoned by their owners. the crew here has depended on food and water from a charity called mission to see ferris brought regularly. by moses, he says, ships, owners try to push abandoned cruise to their limit. they want to cause a crisis so that they want to get paid out. leave the ship so that they don't pay this a lot about some of the crew that was left to them because life was to continue. i

would like to tell me more than for liberty. abandoned cargoes can be a problem too. it was an abandon ships cargo that caused a devastating explosion. lebanon's capital bay route last year. the crew of n v g non hope their ordeal will soon be over. a court in mombasa ordered the ship to be sold in an auction. the owners didn't respond to our request for comment. you stay for nothing, you know, but, but now we some like some light waiting. get that from that good to take one a. we say good buys and leave the crew waiting to whoever won the auction to pay up . and if that happens, delsey be leaving to and finally flying home that thousands more like them around the world. still going know where malcolm web al jazeera mombasa can yeah. and that's i show for this week,

but there's more for you online at al jazeera dot com slash ctc. that will take you straight to our page with episodes to watch. again, whenever you want to don't be from counting the cost team. you know, thanks for joining us. the news on our euro is next. ah frank assessments. lot of ways that the government wants one exactly how to and what may have meant taking situation might not be ever again and in depth analysis of the dates global headlines inside story. on our jazeera, the al jazeera is newsletter. the biggest stories of the week delivered to your inbox, analysis and opinions that have the well described and be part of the conversation . a weekly critique of the stories hitting the headline. news media have been left

to sort through mixed messaging on a quite complex story from mainstream street journalism. listening post covers the way the news is covered on a just me ah hello, i'm truly bad. people in go how with a look at our main stories on al jazeera, the number of corona virus cases reported in india since this thought of the pan demik has passed 20000000. it came as the health ministry announce more than 300000 new infections for the 13 straight day. the overall number of deaths has top 220000 elizabeth random has more from new delhi, on the health minister on monday, the health ministry rather. and they were talking about how case.